Fast Facts

about the Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds and Watershed

There are 9,115 miles of total estuarine shoreline in the Albemarle-Pamlico region. 8,136 miles are unmodified natural shorelines based on 2006-2010 shoreline data.1,2

Carteret County has 1,738 miles of estuarine shoreline, the longest in the Albemarle-Pamlico region. Currituck and Dare County are also medalists, with 1,106 and 969 miles respectively. 1,2

With more than 3,000 square miles of open water, the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary is the second largest estuarine complex in the lower 48 states.7

North Carolina has greater acreage of submerged aquatic vegetation than any state on the Atlantic coast except Florida, and 99% of that acreage is in the Albemarle-Pamlico embayment. In APNEP's latest survey (2006-2008) 138,000 acres were visible from the air, and nearly 200,000 acres are estimated to exist.13,14

The area of the Albemarle-Pamlico Basin is 31,478 square miles. The APNEP management region is 23,803 square miles (76% of total basin), which excludes parts of the Roanoke and White Oak basins, and is the largest unit in the National Estuary Program.3

Lake Mattamuskeet is the largest natural lake in North Carolina at 40,000 acres. Nearby Lake Phelps is the second largest at 16,600 acres.5,6

There are approximately 4.8 million acres of farmland in the APNEP region (32% of total management region).8,9

There are 1.4 million acres of land under conservation management in the APNEP region (9% of total management region).10

There are approximately 2.8 million acres of wetlands in the Albemarle-Pamlico Basin according to 2006 data, down 130,000 acres since 1992.15

The geographic center of the Albemarle-Pamlico basin is at 36.150218, -77.714994. This place is halfway between Enfield and Whitakers in North Carolina, just east of I-95. 18

Merchants Millpond State Park contains a grove of Bald Cypress trees that are 800 years old. 22

16,000 farms covering 4.8 million acres are in the Albemarle-Pamlico region.8,9

There are 9,299 miles of freshwater rivers and streams in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine ecosystem.4

The Roanoke River floodplain contains the largest and least-disturbed bottomland forest ecosystem in the eastern slope of North America, and the Albemarle-Pamlico region includes the greatest extent of pocosin wetlands in the world. 11,12

Six river basins flow in to the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary: Chowan, Roanoke, Tar-Pamlico, Neuse, and Pasquotank and White Oak. 16

The largest river basin in the Albemarle-Pamlico region is the Roanoke. 12

Water from 43 NC counties and 38 VA county and cities drain into the Albemarle-Pamlico estuaries. 3

The White Oak and Chowan Rivers are "blackwater" rivers because tannins dye the water the tint of tea/coffee. 24

The human population within in the Albemarle-Pamlico basin in 2010 was 3.9 million with 2.9 million (74%) living in North Carolina and 1 million (26%) living in Virginia. The most populous river basin in the watershed is the Neuse.15

26 Burkholder, J., Eggleston, D., Glasgow, H., Brownie, C., Reed, R., Janowitz, G., . . . (2004). Comparative impacts of two major hurricane seasons on the Neuse River and western Pamlico Sound ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(25), 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/101/25/9291.full.pdf